living doubt

317 Pages·2013·6.74 MB·English

LIVING DOUBT
SYNTHESE LIBRARY
STUDIES IN EPISTEMOLOGY,
LOGrC, METHODOLOGY, AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Managing Editor:
JAAKKO HINTIKKA, Boston University
Editors:
DIRK VANDALEN, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
DONALD DAV IDSON, University of Calijomia, Berkeley
THEO A.F. KUIPERS, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
PATRICK SUPPES, Stanford University, Califomia
JAN WOLENSKI, Jagiellonian University, Krak6w, Po land
VOLUME243
LIVING DOUBT
Essays concerning the epistemology
0/ Charles Sanders Peirce
Edited by
GUYDEBROCK
and
MENNO HULSWIT
Catholic University 0/ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Living doubt : essays concerning the epistemology of Charles Sanders
Peirce / edited by Guy Debrock and Menno Hulswit.
p. cm. -- (Synthese library ; v. 243.)
Papers presented at the Charles S. Peirce Sesquicentennial
International Congress held at Harvard University in 1989.
Includes bibliographical references (p. xxx-xxx) and index.
1. Peirce, Charles S. (Charles Sanders), 1839-1914--Congresses.
I. Debrock, G., 1934- 11. Hulswit, Menno. 111. Charles S.
Peirce Sesquicentennial International Congress (1989 : Harvard
University) IV. Series.
B945.P4L58 1994
121' .092--dc20 94-12528
ISBN 978-90-481-4414-3 ISBN 978-94-015-8252-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-8252-0
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1994
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1994
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
There must be areal and living doubt, and
without this alt discussion is idle.
(Charles Sanders Peirce W 3:248)
TABLE OF OONTENTS
Abbreviations xi
Guy Debrock: Introduction 1
PART I: KNOWLEDGE, TRUTH AND THE PRAGMATIC PRINCIPLE 11
Larry Hickman: The Products 0/ Pragmatism 13
Thomas M. Olshewsky: Realism and Anti/oundationalism 25
Humphrey Palmer: Foundations, Circularity, and Transcendental
Arguments 33
Qiwei Ohen: Some Aspects 0/ Peirce's Theory 0/ Knowledge 43
Bruce Aune: Determinate Meaning and Analytic Truth 55
Yunqiu Wu: Peirce's Arguments /or his Pragmati6tic Maxim 67
Lee F. Werth: Evolutionary Epistemology and Pragmatism 79
Francesca Rivetti-Barbo: The Antinomy of the Liar and the Concept
0/ 'True Proposition' in Peirce's Semeiotic 89
Rossella Fabbrichesi Leo: The Relevance 0/ the Concept 0/ Relation
in Peirce 95
Kuno Lorenz: Pragmatics and Semiotic: The Peircean Version 0/
Ontology and Epistemology 103
Angele Kremer-Marietti: Peirce's Epistemology as a Generalized
Theory 0/ Language 109
vii
PART 11: PEIRCE AND THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL TRADITION 123
Ryszard W6jcicki: Peircean vs. Aristotelian Conception of Truth 125
Gordon E. Whitney: Reason, Will and Belief: Insights from
Duns Scotus and C.S. Peirce 137
Hanna Buczynska-Garewicz: Peirce and Descartes 151
Thomas G. Winner: Peirce and Bolzano 157
Arnold E. Johanson: Peirce and Wittgenstein's On Certainty 171
Jan Wolenski: Some Polish Contributions to Fallibilism 187
Lan Zheng: Peirce, Lakatos and Truth 197
E.M. Barth: Logical Intention and Comparative Principles
of Empirical Logic 209
R. W. Sleeper: Peirce 's Puzzle and Putnam 's Progress:
Why should I be reasonable? 225
Kunitake Ito: Peirce and Davidson: Man is his Language 237
PART II1: KNOWLEDGE, LANGUAGE AND SEMEIOTIC 247
Tianji Jiang: Peirce's Semeiotic Naturalism 249
Nils B. Thelin: Perception, Conception and Linguistic
Reproduction of Events and Time: the Category of
Verbal Aspect in the Light of C.S. Peirce's Theory of Signs 257
Joime Rethore: A Survey of the Use and Usefulness of Peirce
in Linguistics, in France in particular 275
Jose F. Vericat: Color as Abstraction 289
Index 303
Notes on the Authors 319
viii
PREFACE
This volume contains a number of papers regarding the Epistemology of C.S.
Peirce (1839-1914), that were presented during the Charles S. Peirce Sesqui-
centennial International Congress held at Harvard University in the Fall of
1989.
Although it is often said that Peirce is one of the most important North
American philosophers, the real extent of the philosophical importance of his
work begins to emerge only now. Whereas it was for a long time philosophically
fashionable to regard pragmatism as a typically naIve and simplistic American
approach to the serious problems of philosophy, there can be little doubt that
recent epistemological literat ure points to areversal of that trend. Indeed,
pragmatism, and more specifically, Peirce's own brand of pragmaticism, a term
which he invented in order to distance hirns elf from other forms of pragmatism,
may weIl provide the key to an epistemological theory which avoids the pitfalls
of both foundationalism and relativism. The heart of Peirce's doctrine is his
Logic, and any interpretation of his work that does not taken this fact into
account is bound to offer a caricature of his thought. That 'Logic' is linked to
a conception of knowledge and of science, which is increasingly recognized as
maybe the only possible one. All we can do is hope that our inquiry, radically
fallible though it may be, will ultimately converge to some position we may
all agree upon.
Peirce never tired of saying that metaphysics is but the ape of logic. This
view might be paraphrased by saying that, in a very real way, the prevailing
anti-metaphysical mood of much of contemporary philosophy - a mood which
Peirce no doubt would have diagnosed as yet another expression of an implicit
metaphysic - does little more than ape the 'Logic' which he pioneered.
The papers of the present volume represent a rich and cosmopolitan va-
riety of approach to Peirce's Epistemology. This mayaIso partly explain the
magnitude of the editorial work that is involved in the publication of such
volume. It could not have been done without the support and the help of a
number of people who deserve our gratitude.
The book would never have been conceived without the encouragement of
Prof. K. Ketner of the Lubbock Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism. That
it came to be is due to the initial efforts of Prof. C. Schuyt of the University of
Amsterdam. We could not have done without the efficient assistance of Mrs.
Harrie Schipdam who took care of the difficult and complex task of compiling
and checking the index. We are also emdebted for the friendly help extended to
IX
us by the Department of Graphics and by the Computer and Communication
Department of the Faculty of Science of the University of Nijmegen. We
also wish to extend a word of gratitude to Mrs. Annie Kuypers of Kluwer
Publications, who kindly facilitated the process of publication. Finally we
wish to thank the members of the Department of Philosophy in the Faculty
of Science of the University of Nijmegen for their moral support.
But, in a very real way this Volume is the product of the painstaking ef-
forts, the diligence and the infinite patience of Mrs. Trudy Hendriks who,
within a short but very effective period of time not only coordinated every
aspect of the project but saw to it that it was brought to a happyend. There
simply is no adequate way that might express our gratitude for her dedication,
and for the sheer magnitude of the work she has accomplished.
GUY DEBROCK
MENNO HULSWIT
x